The interactions among food, water and energy are of major concern for the future of our supplies of all three components in the nexus.  We must provide food energy and water to meet the needs of nine billion people within the next 50 years.  Changes in global climate further complicate the balance among food, energy and water production. There is little chance of putting more land in agricultural production without further damaging rain forests which play a critical role in sequestering carbon dioxide. If we continue to burn fossil fuels the atmospheric carbon dioxide level will continue to increase. The greenhouse effect will result in accelerating the increase in global temperatures.  Agriculture is a significant producer of greenhouse gasses which opens new opportunities for research and development in both plant and animal agriculture.  Ruminant animal production results in high levels of methane production which is a significant contributor to greenhouse gases. Recent work in controlling methanogenic microbes in the rumen offers potential means to reduce atmospheric methane form animal production.  No single approach will resolve this dilemma.  Improved means of agricultural production will become significant contributors to solving the problem. This must be done in conjunction with reduced use of carbon fuels, carbon dioxide sequestration, and continued increase in the application of solar and wind energy.   The use of water for agriculture can be reduced if we develop more temperature and draught tolerant plants.  Unfortunately, about of one third of food produced is wasted, this will present another opportunity to improv our food delivery system.   The nature of these interactions and potential approaches to resolving some of the issues will be discussed.

Climate change and the food, energy water nexus

255th National Meeting (2018)

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